What are the main themes in As I Lay Dying?

What are the main themes in As I Lay Dying?

As I Lay Dying

  • By Theme.
  • Existence and Mortality.
  • Role of Women.
  • Religion.
  • Family Dysfunction.
  • Self-Interest.

What do the animals symbolize in As I Lay Dying?

Animals. Shortly after Addie’s death, the Bundren children seize on animals as symbols of their deceased mother. Vardaman declares that his mother is the fish he caught. Darl asserts that Jewel’s mother is his horse.

What is the significance of the title As I Lay Dying?

The title derives from Book XI of Homer’s Odyssey (William Marris’s 1925 translation), wherein Agamemnon tells Odysseus, “As I lay dying, the woman with the dog’s eyes would not close my eyes as I descended into Hades.”

What do bananas symbolize in As I Lay Dying?

Bananas in As I Lay Dying symbolize the ultimate failure of tropical consumption as a means for improving the life of the “poor man” in America. The tropics operate in the background of Faulkner’s narrative, like a global horizon that has just curved out of sight.

What literary movement is As I Lay Dying?

literary modernism

Literary Period: Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is a representative work of literary modernism, a movement which established itself in the early 20th century. The havoc of World War I caused an impulse in society, demoralized by war, to challenge society’s very foundations and to uproot tradition.

What happens to Darl at the end of As I Lay Dying?

Darl is the second oldest child, behind Cash, of Addie and Anse Bundren and the leading narrator throughout the novel. At the end of the journey he is sent to an insane asylum in Jackson, his family classified him as mentally insane. Darl was not insane, he was just the only sane man in the insane Bundren world.

Why is Vardaman’s mother a fish?

Let’s start with Vardaman’s decision that his mother is a fish. Vardaman caught a fish and was holding it in his hands. Then he cut it all up into little pieces; once it was cut up, it was no longer a fish. So it was a fish, and then it was not a fish.

What does the fish symbolize to Vardaman?

The idea of the dead fish aids Vardaman’s process of coping with loss, as he is only able to understand mortality and the idea of existence by looking at the concrete example of a fish, once alive, that he caught and cut up to be cooked for dinner.

What does Vardaman mean?

The name Vardaman arrived in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. It is a name for a guard having derived from the Old English word ward, meaning guardian or watchman.

Why does Vardaman drill holes in the coffin?

He thought his mother was still alive. If she’s still alive, then she needs air, and she can’t get air when the coffin is nailed close over her. So the answer is to put some holes in the box.

What does Vardaman do to the coffin?

Tull tells us that after Addie was placed in the coffin, Vardaman twice opened the window to the room so that she could get air. After the family nailed the window shut, he bored two holes through the wood of the coffin and into her face so that she could breathe.

Who is the antagonist of As I Lay Dying?

Anse
Anse (sort of)
Anse is selfish and rather directly stands in between his children and their various dreams: Jewel and his horse, Dewey Dell and her abortion, Cash and his graphophone.

What is Darl’s language style?

Darl’s language is somewhat elevated – he uses phrases like “rigid gravity.” He describes the field, cottonhouse, wagon, and coffin with precise, unemotional language.

Why does Addie cheat on Anse?

She hasn’t become her own person – she’s become part of a family. Now she resents that attachment, which is why she feels her “aloneness has been violated.” This is, of course, the reason for Addie’s affair with Whitfield – to rebel against her role in the family. Or, as she calls it, “revenge” against Anse.

Why did Darl burn the barn?

In the early part of this section, Darl tells Vardaman that he heard his mother asking to be hidden from the sight of man. This is one of the motivating reasons behind Darl’s decision to burn the barn. It can be assumed that Darl saw through the ridiculousness and absurdity of the entire procession.

Why is there a picture of a coffin in As I Lay Dying?

The coffin symbolizes the sense of weight and lack of balance (literally and figuratively) that the Bundrens take on by carting Addie all the way to Jefferson to be buried.

Why does Jewel call his mother a horse?

Darl’s taunt that Jewel’s mother is a horse indicates that Jewel devotes all the love he possesses for his mother on the horse. The horse has become a type of mother symbol, but only Darl is perceptive enough to be aware of this.

Is Vardaman autistic?

Vardaman Bundren, the youngest and most eccentric child featured in As I Lay Dying, is a testament to this fact. While Vardaman displays some symptoms of mild retardation and other learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder serves as a more precise explanation for his behavior.

Why does Vardaman blame Peabody?

Vardaman runs out of the house and begins to cry. He sees the spot on the ground where he first laid the fish he caught, and thinks about how the fish is now chopped up into little pieces of “not-fish” and “not-blood.” Vardaman reasons that Peabody is responsible for Addie’s death and curses him for it.

What is the main conflict of As I Lay Dying?

major conflict When transporting the recently deceased Addie to her burial site, the Bundren family struggles against the forces of nature and injury in its river-crossing and the aftermath. The Bundrens struggle internally as Darl begins to question the logic of carrying Addie’s body all the way to Jefferson.

Is Darl a schizophrenic?

The leading diagnosis of the character Darl Bundren, as given by the critics, is schizophrenia (Simon 106).

What is the author’s style in As I Lay Dying?

Told from multiple perspectives, the novel has 59 sections written mostly in stream-of-consciousness— a literary style marked by a character’s uninterrupted flow of thoughts. Also, Faulkner uniquely employs symbols throughout his work.

Why does Addie favor jewel?

While Cash, Darl, Vardaman, and Dewey Dell are all the children of Anse and Addie, Jewel is the child resulting from the affair between Addie and Father Whitfield. As such, Addie favors Jewel over all the other children. Addie even admits to Cora that Jewel “is [her] cross and he will be [her] salvation.

Why is Darl insane in As I Lay Dying?

Darl Bundren, however, is declared insane because he thinks differently from his family. Darl serves as the primary narrator in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, a story of one dysfunctional family’s journey through the Mississippi countryside to the town of Jefferson to bury their matriarch.

Why is Vardaman important?

Vardaman served one term, from 1913 until 1919. He was defeated in his primary re-election bid in 1918. The main factor in his defeat was his vote against the US declaration of war on Germany and the entry into World War I.

Related Post